Most of you have probably run across Passionato by now, the new online shop for classical music downloads. A few little things make it different from iTunes: the quality of their audio files, the lack of DRM and their relationship with classical labels. The CEO, James Glicker, expands on his plans for the site. Not sure on his community with blogs, reviews, etc running alongside the music service.
I wanted it to be brilliant, but the truth is there's still loads of work to be done to make this an alternative to iTunes. To test it, I looked for a recording of Vaughan Williams' Variations on a Theme of Thomas Tallis [edited later - Pete has kindly pointed out, in the nicest possible way, that it's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, but I maintain if the search worked well I would have still found it], that I've been meaning to buy for awhile. I searched Vaughan Williams and came up with what looks like an unordered list of albums, some of which don't look like they have any Vaughan Williams on there at all, though I suppose they must. When I instead searched Variations on a Theme of Thomas Tallis I came up with no results. I went back to my composer search and used the drop down menu on the left to narrow my search to orchestral works, and ended up with a Best of British album. Though when you click through to the track listing, there's no way of telling which composer's works they are, as it's not listed with each track – just things like Communion Service in C major, Op.115: Gloria. I'm gathering that means Passionato doesn't have it yet, but I'm not confident at all.
For comparison's sake, I searched for the same work on the iTunes store – two clicks and I had the option of the BBC Symphony Orchestra or St Martin's in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner.
To their credit, there are some interesting things on Passionato, and I did end up buying Marin Alsop and the LPO doing Brahms 4 and some Hungarian Dances (which is Jessica Duchen's fault, I'm reading her book of the same name right now) for £4 for the mp3 version. It's nice to be able to take advantage of Naxos' great pricing and interesting choices in repertoire and performers online, as they aren't on iTunes.
I remain unconvinced.
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petemaskreplica
15 September 2008 at 7:22 pm
Try searching for Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
That said, my initial impression when I looked at it briefly over the weekend was that the search functions were pretty awful, and the fact that it can’t find a piece where you got one word wrong doesn’t change my impression. A new website’s bound to have a few glitches, of course, but if you’re going to make a success you’ve got to get something as basic as searching for titles right from the off.
Erin
15 September 2008 at 11:04 pm
Hahaha, yes, I edited the post pointing out my own rep screw up. I agree, if it can’t handle one word wrong, and I can’t be the only person to get that wrong, hell I spelled the rest of it right! I just find the whole thing difficult to navigate. It’s such a critical part of what they’re offering.